Hamburg Dammtor

Zürich Hb

The Zürich Hauptbahnhof (Zürich Hauptbahnhof), the largest railway station in Switzerland, has 26 stations (platforms) and is located in the heart of Zurich. The station is located at the northern end of the old town, in the heart of Zurich, close to the junction of the Limmat and Sihl rivers. The station is located on multiple levels, with the platform on the ground and underground and connected to the ShopVille shopping centre via an underground passage.

The station is roughly east-west, located on the northern edge of the city centre and at the northern end of the city's main shopping street, Bahnhofstrasse. It is divided into three main levels, with sixteen terminal platform tracks and the main hall of the station on the ground floor. Below this level is a series of walkways, the ShopVille shopping centre. At the lowest level, parallel to the ground terminal platform, there are 10 underground platform tracks. There are many shopping malls (RailCity) under the underground station in Zurich, and because they are located in the federal government area, they can operate legally on Saturday night and Sunday. The high-end waiting area of Zurich Station is limited to the first class of international trains and the first-class ticket holders.

International trains such as the French TGV, Italy's Cisalpino, Germany's ICE and other important high-speed trains as well as international sleeper trains stop at Zurich.

Hamburg (English: , German: [ˈhambʊʁk] ; Low Saxon: Hamborg), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (German: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; Low Saxon: Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg), is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and 8th largest city in the European Union with a population of over 1.8 million. One of Germany's 16 federal states, it is surrounded by Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south. The city's metropolitan region is home to more than five million people. Hamburg lies on the River Elbe and two of its tributaries, the River Alster and the River Bille. The official name reflects Hamburg's history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League and a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, it was a fully sovereign city state, and before 1919 formed a civic republic headed constitutionally by a class of hereditary grand burghers or Hanseaten. Beset by disasters such as the Great Fire of Hamburg, North Sea flood of 1962 and military conflicts including World War II bombing raids, the city has managed to recover and emerge wealthier after each catastrophe. Hamburg is Europe's third-largest port. Major regional broadcaster NDR, the printing and publishing firm Gruner + Jahr and the newspapers Der Spiegel and Die Zeit are based in the city. Hamburg is the seat of Germany's oldest stock exchange and the world's oldest merchant bank, Berenberg Bank. Media, commercial, logistical, and industrial firms with significant locations in the city include multinationals Airbus, Blohm + Voss, Aurubis, Beiersdorf, and Unilever. The city hosts specialists in world economics and international law, including consular and diplomatic missions as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the EU-LAC Foundation, and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, multipartite international political conferences and summits such as Europe and China and the G20. Both former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Angela Merkel, German chancellor since 2005, were born in Hamburg. The city is a major international and domestic tourist destination. It ranked 18th in the world for livability in 2016. The Speicherstadt and Kontorhausviertel were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 2015.Hamburg is a major European science, research, and education hub, with several universities and institutions. Among its most notable cultural venues are the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle concert halls. It gave birth to movements like Hamburger Schule and paved the way for bands including The Beatles. Hamburg is also known for several theatres and a variety of musical shows. St. Pauli's Reeperbahn is among the best-known European entertainment districts.

Zürich or Zurich ( ZEWR-ik; see below for other names) is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. The municipality has approximately 409,000 inhabitants, the urban agglomeration 1.315 million and the Zürich metropolitan area 1.83 million. Zürich is a hub for railways, roads, and air traffic. Both Zurich Airport and railway station are the largest and busiest in the country. Permanently settled for over 2,000 years, Zürich was founded by the Romans, who, in 15 BC, called it Turicum. However, early settlements have been found dating back more than 6,400 years ago. During the Middle Ages, Zürich gained the independent and privileged status of imperial immediacy and, in 1519, became a primary centre of the Protestant Reformation in Europe under the leadership of Huldrych Zwingli.The official language of Zürich is German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect, Zürich German. Many museums and art galleries can be found in the city, including the Swiss National Museum, the Kunsthaus and newer Theater 11 in Oerlikon. Schauspielhaus Zürich is one of the most important theatres in the German-speaking world.Zürich is a leading global city and among the world's largest financial centres despite having a relatively small population. The city is home to many financial institutions and banking companies. Many of Switzerland's research and development centres are concentrated in the Greater Zürich area and the low tax rates and canton funding subsidies attract overseas companies to set up their headquarters or finance treasury services in the city.Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Zürich first on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within". According to several surveys from 2006 to 2008, Zürich was named the city with the best quality of life in the world as well as the wealthiest city in Europe in terms of GDP per capita.